The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-06-23
Intellectual North Carolina-Now all
Recent.
TGOldsbOrO Messenger. ]

At no period in her history has
North Carolina borne better fruit than
she has been doing in these latter years
of rccuperation and transition. To-
day we speak of scholarship and literary
talent only. And we include in the
scope of our birds eye survey the sons
of the State who have for temporary or
permanent objects gone forth from her
borders. They are all her sons-Chil-
dren Of the all-nourishing, majestive
mother.
y few only of the workers can here
he named, for-strange as it may seem
to the doubtcr-their number is le-
gion.
In the field OF letters some are dead
who have achieved merted success.
The poet and novelist Edwin w. Fuller
Is the first whom we shall name. The
flower of all his work was his meta
physical poem, "Ihe Angel in the
Cloud" 1t struck true, perhaps a
minor chord. His mind was broad
and his nature generous; his gifts were
genuine gifts from the gods who dwell
on Olympus, and Of the masses who
descend from ParnaSsus into the hearts
of the divine sons and daughters of ge-
MUS. 1t is not without tear, such as
the English of his time shed for Keats,
the Immortal, that we recall the splen-
did budding talent of this child of
song and Carolina. Mrs Mary Bayard
Clark, too, is dead. Much that she
wrote was addressed to the last gener-
alton. 1t seems but yesterday, how
ever, that we read her stirring war
poetry and her poems of passion and
sentiment. She also was a true poet
And latterly she did some good criti-
cal work in the periodicals.
Thco. H. Hill and John Henry
Boner, the one in North Carolina, the
other in New York, abide with us, we
trust, to do more and more delicate,
subtle and fincly-wrought lyrical work
Here is the finest field for the mod
ern poet. The days OF the epic-of
Dante and Millionaire perhaps gone
forever. The age is brisk in move
ment and heroic chiefly in moral en-
deayor. The place even of the drama
Is not so we'll assured as formerly. 1t
Is the short poems, the odes, the songs,
ballads, that strike deepest into the
popular heart Then, we say, may
the star Hesperus and the genii of the
Whispering Pines speak vet again to
Hill and BOner, and in even a more
commanding, masterful inspiration.
Miss Cameron, author of the novel
Sailed With Fire. Mrs. Irwin, of
Charlotte, and other ladies, have writ
ten pleasantly and with varying power.
Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer and
Miss Frances Fisher have, however,
made the deepest impression and our
literary annals accord TO these noble
women the highest need of praise and
the laurel crown of Sappho and
Comma. Miss Murfree, we may only
claim, as the grand daughter of North
Carolina
Several Of the journalists of the re-
cent past and the living present have
burnt incense at the shrine of the
muses.. The HcldenS. farther and
son; klngsbury, versatile, eloquent,
almost oYerladen with the rich fruit
age OF English and American thought :;
the late Peter NJ Hale in occasional
crlticising in his newspapers; the able
politician Saunders, now and then re-
newing the JOYS of his youth in words
OF praise of current writers; the DIS
terminating Cameron, the gifted and
charming Blount; the serene Ashe, the
elegant Waddell and Crcecy, the
progressive Page, the earnest Josephus
Daniels, the enterprising Frick and
oldham-these are few of the .breth-
ZEN who deserve Il place in the
Carolina Valhalla of letters. Their
lIteary merits, we suppose, are vary
ing but the devotion to ideals is proba
bly, the same in all. One Western
editor, who died in harness, in the
polish OF his articles, in the true ring
OF his talent, and in his accomplish